Pope Leo declared 15-year-old Carlo Acutis a saint on Sunday, Sept. 7, the first such ceremony of his tenure, canonizing the first Catholic saint of the millennial generation, elevating him to the same level as Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi.
Carlo, a British-born Italian who died from leukemia in 2006 at age 15, had been set to be canonized April 27 during the Jubilee of Adolescents. The ceremony was postponed after the death of Pope Francis on April 21. Carlo, sometimes referred to as “God’s influencer,” learned several computer coding languages before his death and built websites to spread his faith. He was canonized alongside Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Italian known for helping those in need. Frassati lived from 1901 to 1925 and died at age 24 of polio.
The pope called the two new saints an “invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces,” in front of a crowd of thousands at an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
Born in 1991, Carlo used his technological skills to evangelize and stood out for his joyful faith and compassion for others. He developed websites for his parish and the wider Catholic Church. Carlo’s beatification took place in October 2020, when Pope Francis declared the teen had attained the blessedness of heaven, and he was given the title of “Blessed.” His mother, Antonia Salzano, told Reuters in April that the heart of her son’s appeal was that he lived the same life as others who were teenagers in the 2000s. “Carlo was an ordinary child like (others),” she said. “He used to play, to have friends, and to go to school. But his extraordinary quality was the fact that he opened the door of his heart to Jesus and put Jesus in first place in his life.”
Sainthood indicates that the church believes the person is in heaven with God. Sainthood causes are examined by a Vatican department that must confirm that the person lived a holy life. It usually also involves the verification of two miracles attributed to the future saint’s intercession with God in heaven.
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